Expecting Unexpected - Luke 1:26-38 - February 13, 2022

 Luke 1:26-38 Expecting Unexpected

Good morning! We are back in the Gospel of Luke this morning, chapter one and we are going to look at verses 26-38, page 855 in the pew Bibles.

Let’s pray.

This account that we are  going to look at this morning shares a common theme with our text from last week, and that is, the angel Gabriel announcing babies to those who least expected them. 

Mary and Elizabeth were not expecting the unexpected, rather it was expecting that was unexpected! (you’re welcome.)

Let’s look at our text…

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

I’d like to do two things this morning based on this text. First I’d like to examine what Mary is versus what she is not as there has been much confusion about this based on the teachings of the Catholic church. The second thing I’d like to do is to contrast Zechariah’s and Mary’s responses to Gabriel and his message.

If you grew up Catholic or if you have ever watched much TV, you’re familiar with saying the “Hail Mary.” Maybe if you’re a football fan you’ve heard of throwing a hail Mary.

In case you’ve never thought about the meaning of that phrase, it’s a pass where the ball stays in the air long enough to say the “Hail Mary.” And if you grew up Catholic you can probably recite the “Hail Mary,” or Ave Maria, as it’s often assigned for penance in confession.

It goes something like this: “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen” (please don’t say your amen to that.)

That prayer is based on parts of this text and partly on Elizabeth’s response when she sees Mary later in this chapter, and partly on the wicked imaginations of men.

So it’s important to consider what Mary is not versus what she actually is.

Mary is not our mediator, meaning she is not to be prayed to. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…

Mary is not “full of grace,” she is the recipient of grace. This prayer falsely attribute Mary with being full of grace in and of herself instead of being a sinful child of Adam in desperate need for forgiveness just like the rest of us.

Here’s the reality of what the Bible says about Mary versus what the Catholic Church says about her:

Gabriel said that she was highly favored, the Catholic Church says that she is the dispenser of favors. 

Elizabeth said that she was blessed among women, the Catholic Church says that she is raised above women. 

Mary said that she was a servant of the Lord, the Catholic Church says that she is the Queen of angels and Saints in Heaven.

The truth is that the Catholic Church has made Mary into an idol saying that she was conceived without sin like Jesus, when in reality, just like us, she too has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. She too has been saved by faith in Jesus.

Jesus Himself said, in Luke 11:27-28 when a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

What Gabriel said was true, she was highly favored, she was chosen by God to bear the Lord Jesus and should be honored for her faithful service not worshipped.

So now that that is out of the way, let’s consider our text and compare Mary’s experience with Zechariah’s. I said to Karole-Ann this week as I was preparing that this all seemed very familiar, just another sermon about Gabriel showing up to tell somebody else that they’re having a baby! 

The reality is, that though there are definite similarities in these accounts, the reactions of the recipients of Gabriel’s news was actually quite different.

So let’s look at their reactions.

26 In the sixth month (actually Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy) the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

Zechariah was serving in the Temple in Jerusalem and Mary was living out in the sticks, in the backwater town of Nazareth. 

11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

Zechariah and Mary were both doing their thing and Gabriel shows up. Both are troubled, the Greek root word is the same. But they were troubled by different things. Gabriel hadn’t said anything to Zechariah yet, he was troubled by his presence. Mary, on the other hand, was troubled by what Gabriel said. Not that his presence was not surprising but her main concern was what the angel’s greeting meant.

Mary was a pensive person, we can see that throughout the Gospel accounts, that she treasured up things and pondered them in her heart, wondering about the meanings of things. When the shepherds showed up at the manger, and when Jesus was a boy in the temple and he was teaching the experts there in Jerusalem at twelve years old.

When Gabriel appears to Zechariah he was gripped with fear, but when he appeared to Mary she carefully considered his greeting.

Another major difference is in their response to what Gabriel was there to tell them, that they were each going to have a son. 

We looked at Zechariah’s response last week. He responded with doubt and distrust. He said, “How will I know this? I’m and old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” He basically asked the angel Gabriel who stands in the presence of God, “How do I know that what you’re saying is true?” He dishonored God with his response.

Both Zechariah and Mary responded with questions of “How.” But where Zechariah questioned the plan’s accuracy, Mary questioned its possibility.

Zechariah asked, “How can it be?” Mary asked, “How will this be?”

She didn’t doubt the Lord’s word through Gabriel, in fact her response showed just the opposite. Her response showed admiration and faith. She simply asked, “How is it to be contrary to the natural laws of human birth?”

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 

Mary had a fiancée not a husband, she was betrothed to Joseph but they weren’t married yet. Betrothal in the first Century was a legally binding arrangement ended only by divorce as you can see from Joseph’s heartbreaking response to finding out Mary was pregnant and that he wasn’t the father in Matthew 1.

Because Mary did not yet have a husband, in her mind, there was no way for her to conceive a son.

But Gabriel went on to explain the plan a little more fully and to bolster her faith with news that her old cousin Elizabeth was expecting too.

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Where Zechariah responded to the angel with doubt, Mary responded in faith and humble submission. But where Zechariah was made mute for his response, Mary would suffer much more for hers.

Mary would have to suffer the shame of being pregnant before she was married, the Law said that she was to be stoned to death. She had to explain the situation to Joseph and to her family. But even after Joseph’s dream and his decision to take Mary as his wife, she would have to watch her Son suffer more than any man even though He was innocent. She would watch as He was beaten and crucified for the sins of the world.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Mary’s believing response was to surrender herself to God as His willing servant. She experienced the grace of God and believed the Word of God, and therefore she could be used by the Spirit [of God] to accomplish the will of God.”

Gabriel’s message to both Zechariah and to Mary is not unlike the gospel. 

The gospel announces the grace of God into impossible circumstances, though we are sinners and are undeserving of God’s forgiveness, because of His great love for us he sent His Son Jesus to live a life without sin and to die on the cross in our place, that whoever would believe in Him, through faith in His Name would be forgiven of their sin and given a place to live in his eternal Kingdom as His child forever!

Let’s respond like Mary, in humble submission and faith.

Amen.

Prophecy of a Prophet - Luke 1:5-25 - February 6, 2022

 Luke 1:5-25 Prophecy of a Prophet

Good morning! We are back in the Gospel of Luke this morning, chapter one, verses 5-25, page 855 in the pew Bibles.

I’ve said to you all before that the whole Old Testament is about the person and work of Jesus, but that isn’t always apparent to everybody, especially if you never read it.

I want to start our study in Luke with a quick look at Malachi. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament and after it comes 400 years of silence. No prophets spoke or wrote or appeared in Israel for 400 years. 

400 years is a long time. To give you an example of just how long 400 years really is to hopefully make it a little more real to you, 400 years ago this past Thursday, Miles Standish was elected Commander of the Plymouth Colony.

So just Imagine that Miles Standish was the last person to speak on God’s behalf to us and you’ll have a picture of how long the Jewish people had been waiting to hear a message from the Lord.

And what was that message? I’d like to read two pieces of it from Malachi 3:1, and 4:5-6.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Now with those words ringing in our ears let’s look at Luke 1:5-25.

5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, 

Actually, we have to stop there so we can look at another prophecy concerning the coming of Messiah, one way older than Malachi’s, in Genesis 49:10.

10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

Verse 5 says, In the days of Herod, king of Judea… Herod was not from the tribe of Judah, Herod was an Edomite, appointed by the Romans to govern Judea. As Moses had written in Genesis 49, the scepter had indeed departed from Judah and the ruler’s staff from between his feet. But He to whom it belonged was about to come on the scene. In case you’re curious, that’s Jesus! So even Herod ruling over Judea was a fulfillment of prophecy of the coming Messiah Jesus.

5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. 

8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” 

18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. 

24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” 

So in Luke’s orderly account, the only Gospel writer to include the birth of John the Baptist, he paints a picture of the Land of deep darkness before the great light of the coming of the Lord Jesus.

And who do we see, and what can we learn about them and from them?

Zechariah and Elizabeth.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were, as Luke writes, righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. This means over sixty, sorry folks.

By most accounts these were good people, the kind of neighbors you would want to have. Their only problem was that they didn’t have any kids. In our culture today that isn’t that big a deal, you don’t want kids don’t have them. To each his own.

But in their culture not having children brought shame and disgrace on a family.

Zechariah served as a priest in the division of Abijah. This is also not an insignificant fact. Maybe. The sons of Aaron, brother of Moses, were to make up the class of priests for the nation. Aaron’s two sons, Eleazar’s and Ithamar’s descendants would be those priests and they were divided up into 24 divisions, 16 from the eldest son, Eleazar, and 8 from the younger son, Ithamar. The division of Abijah was the eighth of the divisions of Ithamar, the last division.

So here is Zechariah, a nice, devout, older fella, but kind of low on the ladder being of the last division of priests, and certainly lower because he was under that cultural shadow of being childless. 

Zechariah was chosen by lot, however, to offer incense in the holy place during his week of service at the Temple. The 24 divisions of priests represented around 20,000 priests, so each division was between 800-850 men. It was said that having the lot fall to you for this responsibility was once in a lifetime and today was certainly Zechariah’s day.

So Zechariah is in the holy place in the Temple, not the Holy of Holies but the area right outside of that, and all kinds of people are outside praying at the hour of incense while he puts incense on the coals from the altar that represents the prayers of the people.

11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

So this is an amazing event, obviously, it’s been 400 years since anybody heard anything directly from the Lord, no angels, no prophets, nothing!

But what I find most interesting is what the angel says about Zechariah’s prayer: the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son…”

This is strictly speculation but don’t you think that by sixty-ish years old Zechariah would have stopped praying for a son? I know it’s completely possible and probably accurate that he hadn’t yet given up hope and that he continued to pray in this way but it is also completely possible that the Lord was answering a different prayer by blessing him and his wife with a son in their old age. It is completely possible, serving as priest for the people at the altar of incense that he was praying for the consolation and redemption of Israel, that he was praying for Messiah to come and rescue them.

I’m probably over-spiritualizing this but that’s exactly what the Lord was doing, fulfilling prophecy to prepare the way for Messiah to come.

…the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” 

And since we have read the book we know that that is exactly what John the Baptist would grow up and do. 

He was the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy, the herald of the Messiah, who preached repentance to the people and called them back to the Lord so that they would be prepared when Jesus arrived on the scene.

And of course since Zechariah was such a devout, faithful guy, we knew he was right on board with the angel’s message right? 

After all, everybody who hears the Word of the Lord goes and does exactly what it says, right?

Zechariah responds instead with doubt.

18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

And that’s exactly what happens. Zechariah is struck dumb, he can’t talk, an argument can be made based on the account of John’s actual birth that he was also made deaf, for nine months he was unable to speak as a punishment for his doubt for sure, but also as the sign that he asked Gabriel for.

24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” 

John would prove to be much more than just the answer to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s prayer for a son, Jesus Himself said that no man born of woman was greater than John the Baptist.

I also don’t think it’s coincidental the meanings of the names of Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John.

Zechariah means, “The Lord remembers.” Though Israel was living in a time of deep spiritual darkness, the Lord remembered His promise 

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

Elizabeth means, “God’s oath,” His oath was to establish David’s throne forever.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. 

John means, “Yaweh shows grace.”

It was John’s mission to prepare the way for the embodiment of God’s grace: Jesus the Messiah.

4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

Amen.

Introduction to the Gospel of Luke - Luke 1:1-4 - January 30, 2022

 Luke 1:1-4 Introduction to the Gospel of Luke

Good morning! It seems like forever since I have been up here! Thank you Nate for bring the Word for the last two weeks, understanding Scripture as one united whole is so important!

Before we get too far, let’s have a word of prayer.

We are beginning a new series following in the same pattern that we have for the last several years of looking at the works of one human author in the approximate order in which they were delivered. We spent around seven years on the works of the Apostle Paul, and not nearly as long on the works of the Apostle Peter, considering Paul wrote thirteen books and Peter wrote only three.

Well, now we are moving onto a new author and that author is Luke.

Luke wrote two works which some feel are merely part one and part two of the same work, which in my view is an accurate way of looking at them. First, there is the Gospel of Luke which is where we are going to start, and then there is the book of Acts, also known as The Acts of the Apostles. That’s a somewhat more accurate title; even more accurate would be The Acts of the Holy Spirit.

Regardless of what you call them, those are the two books that Luke wrote. Some scholars suggest that he collaborated with Paul to write the Epistle to the Hebrews which was a new suggestion to me this week and is an intriguing idea for sure, maybe a spoiler for where we’ll go after Acts…

So who is Luke, what do we know about him?

Most commonly known is that Luke was a doctor, an educated man, most likely from Antioch in Syria which was a very polished city, thought to be the seat of science and learning in the Roman world of the First Century. This would explain Luke’s incredible work of writing his Gospel account and the Book of Acts. He weren’t no dummy!

Luke was a close companion of the Apostle Paul. Paul mentions him by name in Philemon 24, 2 Timothy 4:11, and Colossians4:14. Luke joins up with Paul in the city of Troas, also known as Troy. This is recorded in one of my favorite passages of Scripture mostly because I’m such a nerd about this sort of thing.

Acts 16:6-10

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Did you see the difference? Remember that Luke is writing this, and he goes from saying, “they,” and, “them,” to saying, “we,” and, “us.” I love that! I’m a nerd, I know!

Luke remained with Paul for most of his life and ministry after that, preaching and writing. He was well known by the church and was martyred in Greece by being crucified on an olive tree because there weren’t any crosses around.

You can see evidence of the relationship of Paul and Luke in their accounts of the Lord’s Supper as well as Luke’s subtle emphasis on justification by faith alone. Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians 11 that we often read during Communion very closely echoes Luke’s account of the Last Supper in Luke 22.

Luke’s Gospel differs greatly from the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, not just in organization and style but in his overall emphasis. 

Luke endeavored to preserve the chronological order of the events much more that Matthew did. And where Matthew presents Jesus to us as the Messiah of Israel, and Mark announces the gospel of the Son of God, Luke depicts the Son of Man, Jesus’ most used title for Himself. He appeared definitely in Israel but for the benefit of all of mankind, Jews and Gentiles.

JJ van OOsterzee wrote, “As Paul led the people of the Lord out of the bondage of the Law into the enjoyment of gospel liberty, so did Luke raise sacred history from the standpoint of Israeilitish nationality, to the higher and holier ground of universal humanity.”

If you compare Matthew’s record of Jesus’ genealogy to Luke’s the contrast will really stand out, Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage back to Abraham, the origin of the Jewish race, but Luke traced it all the way back to Adam the origin of all races.

I’d like to look at Luke 1:1-4, the only preface given by any of the Gospel writers, and do a little exercise with you.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

So we’ve been doing a little bit of our typical Bible study procedures, thinking about who wrote a specific text, who was it written to, and what were the circumstances…

So far, we’ve gotten to the fact that Luke wrote this book, but who did he write it to? Theophilus.

We don’t know much about Theophilus, the experts think that he lived in Italy but not much else is really known about him. Both Luke and Acts are addressed to Him.

But as far as the circumstances for the writing of this Gospel, I’d like to do a little exercise with you called, “Drafting an Author’s Intent Statement.”

Luke is the easiest subject to do this exercise on, on both of his writings, because you don’t have to look any further than his introduction to get the information that you need in order to do it.

Drafting an author’s intent statement is to simply consider what the original author intended to do in his writing, what was he trying to accomplish? This tool is helpful to us because it helps us get a little closer to the original meaning of any given text because we have to consider who originally wrote it and what we know about them, as well as who originally received it and what would it have meant to them in their context. This is so important to consider because a Biblical text can never mean what it never meant, we can’t just tear the meaning away from the original audience and try to force it into our modern context.

Unfortunately, many churches today do just the opposite and say that because the Bible was written so long ago, what it says isn’t really what it means, at least not anymore. This, my friends, is the definition of heresy. The meaning never changes, there is only one meaning, there may be infinite applications of the principles, but the meaning remains the same forever.

So let’s consider what Luke’s original intent was in writing this Gospel from verses 1-4.

Intent statements are made up of two parts: TO, and BY.

Meaning, the author’s intent was TO accomplish this or that, BY doing this or that.

It’ll make more sense in a minute. Everything is profound until you do it once.

Let’s look at those verses again.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

So we’re looking for one TO and at least two BYs.

I’ll give you a hint, the TO is in verse four.

Luke’s intent in writing this Gospel was TO: give Theophilus certainty about the things that he had been taught. In this context it was obviously the things that he had been taught about the life and ministry of Jesus not about fly fishing.

So, Luke’s intent in writing this Gospel was TO: give Theophilus certainty about the things that he had been taught.

And the BY statements are how he planned to accomplish the TO statement. His intent was TO give Theophilus certainty about the things that he had been taught about the life and ministry of Jesus BY…

BY collecting accounts from eyewitnesses AND BY writing an orderly account.

Other people had tried to compile a narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus, Matthew and Mark had done that work already by the time Luke wrote his account, but Luke wanted to do it as well. And as we’ll see as we go through the fruit of his labor, his emphasis was very different from the other Gospel writers and his perspective was very different as well.

So this author’s intent exercise can be fun, it can be helpful, if you want to give it a try on your own, try it on the Book of Acts. Since you’re all beginners at it, Acts is just as easy to find as Luke, it’s in the first three verses, it will be a little trickier for you but it’s worth the effort.

One last thing about the original recipient of this letter, Theophilus. 

The name Theophilus means, “lover of God.” 

As Saint  Ambrose wrote: “If you are a lover of God, a Theophilus, it is written to you.”

Amen.